During a mellow Saturday night at home, Mick and I decided to watch a movie, and make it one we considered a cheesy 80′s classic. After suggesting Adventures in Babysitting, and finding out that he had never seen it, the decision was made.

How he could have gone through his teenage years and never seen it is beyond me…but then again, he wasn’t a teenage girl. Happy to report he enjoyed it, and my view on this 80′s hit wasn’t skewed. What I did forget however, and found super entertaining was this.

Yes, that is Vincent D’Onofrio. So random. So blonde. So skinny. Definitely not the Lt. Goren that I have come to love on Law and Order Criminal Intent, or the fat bald Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket (which oddly enough came out the same year.)

Watch one of the clips here:

I was walking to the area where I get picked up for casual carpool this morning, and I heard a loud tapping echoing through the streets. Then I heard it from another location, so i discounted the fact that it might be construction. I looked up at a telephone pole and saw it. I cant remember the last time I saw a woodpecker, let alone heard one…and boy did I hear it. It was pretty cool, because the way the streets are, the sound traveled on most of my walk.

I also passed by some pretty blossoms, and couldnt help but snap a picture. I hope the weather stays like it has been, though I think we are expecting some rain again this weekend.

Ahhhhh!!! So today is my SITS day and I forgot to post my welcome post!!! I had it on my list of things to do yesterday, and it completely escaped me!! Story of my life. I feel like Im hosting a party and forgot to be a greeter, and am hiding in my room. My apologies!!

So let me do a little explaining.

I head about SITS a few years ago, when I started blogging more regularly, and wanted to be a part of it. An amazing opportunity lay before me, and what better way to get exposure to a group of 0ther bloggers. Today is my day to shine. My SITS day. My day to be featured…and I almost blew it!!  A community of over 8,000 bloggers come together to form a community, and share posts, comments, chat in forums, go to conferences, and support each other. Thats why SITS stands for The Secret to Success is Support! Additionally, there is a featured blogger every weekday, and that’s what I am today!

1)I love costumes. I love reasons to wear them, and I have way too much closet space being taken up by them. Many of my costume themed posts can be found here.

2)My house is a zoo. Between 2 cats and a dog, the dander and cat litter are plentiful..but I couldn’t have it any other way.

3) My husband and I both have mustache tattoos on our fingers. He got his first, and I told him that when he proposed I’d get one too. We call it my commitment stache. Its fun to play with at parties.

4) Im an ex-sorority girl living in the Bay Area. Though sorority girl most definitely doesn’t define me… people are actually sometimes shocked I was in one. I’m a California girl born and raised, starting my life in LA, school in SD, and been in the bay for 8 years. A majority of my friends from home and college having families, some with up to 3 kids! I feel like the Bay area is home to a lot of people with peter pan syndrome, and they dont want to grow up. Living here was always more of a party and work kind of life rather than family focused. Things are changing. My friends up here are maturing and starting the wedding circuit. I got married last August, and cant wait to have a family….stay tuned, hopefully things will turn around and I’ll be able to actually post baby posts as opposed to stalking other peoples baby focused Etsy sites. Love making Wunzees for other people, but cant wait to make them for ME!

5)I like to think I’m crafty…though I’ve seen what other people can do. I was making Wunzees for a while, and if you need one, I still can. I am currently trying to make a new quilt, (the one below is a first attempt) and doing a bunch of small ones in the process. I wish i knew what i was doing!!

Anyway…I hope you enjoy my blog. Not traditional in the “I have focus” sense, but hopefully fun nonetheless. Thanks for visiting!!!

Its been a while since I’ve gone back and updated my 101 in 1001 days. Im not sure if I will complete it, nor do I think its even possible, but I adjusted some of the list according to my last few months.

My excuses thus far….

I havent moved out of the Bay Area just yet, and I don’t forsee us leaving my apartment for another one in the bay, so that limits my progress in:

• #10 Live somewhere with a backyard–I just dont, and wont till I move somewhere with one.
• #14 Get a tan–please, have you ever tried to get a tan in Northern California? Damn near impossible.
• #72 Paint Walls in my home–I rent, don’t really care for my landlord….why bother sprucing up walls that arent too shabby already

There are a few out of my control:

• #17 get pregnant–Doin what I can.
• #22. stay off the computer for a week–I work in front of one, though I may chalk this one up to my honeymoon, where I did successfully stay off for a week. That counts. I’m taking it.
• #44. go to Burningman–not sure if this is a priority anymore for me to go here. Especially because if #17 is successful in the next year, not the best place to be pregnant or have a newborn.

There are a few where I’ve just stopped keeping track

• #55. see an average of one live show a month–maybe on average, though I’ve been trying to save, so it might be fewer.
• #65. read at least one book every other month–gonna trust that I have
• #81. see 30 new movies–considering we have all but cleared out our Netflix queue…I’m going to assume this has happened, and is happening.

I have done a few things that I want to share…but thats for other posts.

It’s the year of the Rabbit…and I found this article on Yahoo about what this means for someone like me…I’m a Snake. I actually found it quite accurate. I have made some notes corresponding to the places that kind of freaked me out. I’m not much to believe horoscopes…but maybe the Chinese ones are different. All sounds pretty positive, so lets hope my year goes as described.

• If last year was a bit wild for you, things might calm down a bit in the Year of the Metal Rabbit. Your sign’s element is Fire, which has a harmful influence on the Metal year element — make sure you plot your course carefully. Even though your favorability for the year is only 65%, almost all your months will be favorable. Your determination and perseverance might need a tune-up. Are there ways you can boost your motivation? Give yourself a daily dose of self-confidence with words of affirmation. There’s room for you to accomplish great things. (NOTE: In the month of January I participated (sort of) in a program my friend Jamie designed called Immaculatize, which is ALL about bettering yourself.)

(more…)

• I am amazed how happy a perfectly toasted piece of bread can make me. We got the toaster oven we registered for yesterday, immediately threw away our burning bread machine, and now can cook things as they should be. Evenly, not burnt and delish.
• We do not have salmonella infused eggs in my fridge. I checked.
• I really want to purge some stuff tonight. I just need to clean out my closet, bookshelves, etc…and get rid of some of the clutter that exists in my life. I’ve also been crafting in my living room, so I now have what is becoming a craft corner where it shouldn’t be. Guess its time to re-organize my ACTUAL crafting corner in the other room. Suggestions? I have an IKEA Expedit with a desk but cant seem to get it to where I like the organization. Your craft organizing tips are welcome.
• My dog has been waking us up at 3:30 am for either bathroom breaks or water needs, and while I understand that he is a dog, and thats what he does…it’s making for a very tired Lauren and Mick. I was up and outside at 3:00 am this morning while he did what he needed to. Kind of creepy outside to be honest. Mick actually woke up, realized I was gone, and came looking for me. Creeptastic.
• Is doing my best to become financially responsible. Ticketmaster, Livenation and Another Planet Entertainment are not assisting me with this process. I’m making the right choices and not buying the tickets, but seriously? How do they think that $42 for tickets to a concert, BEFORE fees is OK? All of these amazing bands that I wont see because its the cost of me going to a Broadway show. Call me bitter.
• Back to the kitchen thoughts, I dream of a day that I have a kitchen big enough where all my new appliances don’t have to sit in boxes until we use them.  I want counter space, I want an island, I want a functional space…not the closet we have in our apartment. I also just found THIS blog, and now I am wanting my own lovely kitchen even more.

For a hot minute I got pretty into my “numbers” on my blog. I was trying to be active everywhere I could be. I became a part of SITS, an active lady blogger community that has definitely brought me some readers. I was checking my analytics on a daily basis to see what posts brought the most readers, and who liked what. I mean…I’m not an all-star blogger. I think that on a good week, an average of 100 people visiting was awesome. Normally I’m somewhere in the 50-75 range, and thats when I write a few times a week. I definitely notice that when I don’t write, no one visits…and thats understandable.

I was feeling the pressure though. I was writing blogs that didnt mean anything. Entries just to write. Space holders. Sure, most of my entries are fluffy anyway…but thats what my blog is about, nothing. I guess they were fluffier for a while? Anyway, I’ve decided to stop caring. I don’t want to feel pressure to write. I love being an active part of a blogger community, but I don’t want to feel obligated to keep up with people. I want to do it on my own terms, and on my own time…and if my numbers start reflecting that…I’m OK with it. My Google Analytics has even been inactive for over a week, and I haven’t made any quick effort to fix it.

If I don’t write for a week…I’m not going to feel bad about it. If I write 3 a day, and don’t space them out through the week…I’m fine with that too. Getting things I need to get done…living my life without sharing every detail…thats what I want. Do you ever wish for the stone age? An age where technology didn’t rule, and people didn’t feel the need to share EVERYTHING? I feel lucky as a 30 something woman to have actually experienced life without the internet, blogs, cell phones, and that constant connection at all times. Do you think its weird that todays generations won’t ever experience that? There wasn’t a filter on what I could and couldn’t see at the library. People couldn’t reach me at all times. My life wasn’t out there for all to see. I didn’t even have a pager in high school like many of my friends did.

And yet I find it weird that people I know are un-searchable on the internet. I know people without facebook pages, and no Google search results. At times I wish I could go back to that. Just delete my presence offline. But then I’d feel so out of the loop that I’d just want to get back into it…because thats what is normal now. It’s what’s expected. Kind of wish it wasn’t.

Tangential as it may be….this post makes sense to me.

This past Saturday I went to a lovely wedding. It was my first of the year, and the first I’d been to since I started my own planning. I couldn’t stop looking at the details. There was no judgment on my end…just observing and checking out the decisions made. The wedding was very different than what I am planning. It was in a church. She walked down to “Here Comes the Bride,” and her dress was an adorable, just below the knee, 50′s looking thing. The biggest difference was that their wedding had 30 people in attendance.

It was actually pretty nice being a part of an intimate event. We felt honored to be the only “friends” guests that weren’t in the wedding party. We got to know the family. We got to “make” the party. The reception was held at a hotel in Half Moon Bay, buffet style, and they treated us with an open bar. Their DJ even told us that Denon & Doyle (our DJ) is his biggest competition. Guess we did something right!

Attending someone else’s wedding just got me even more excited for my own. I still want the details that I have planned, but do realize that the bigger picture is just being surrounded by the friends and family that you love. Hooray for love! A few pictures are below. I liked the way my Hipstamatic shots came out better, but you can see the whole set here.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world”

Anne Frank Diary of a Young Girl, 1952

Someone tweeted this today, and it really stuck out to me. I think that I’m a pretty positive person, but every once in a while I get in my pessimistic states. My “things aren’t going my way” moods. I saw this quote today and it really made me think. Every second of every day is a chance to start over…to recreate yourself into the type of person that you want to be and wish you could be. I know that the quote says “the world,” but I think that it accounts for people on an individual level as well.

Do something about it. Instead of walking over that piece of trash on the sidewalk, pick it up. Instead of complaining about the state of our animal shelters, volunteer one hour a week. Instead of worrying about your old age and weight, change your diet, start a daily walk, put money into a retirement account.  We have the power to change…you just have to actually get out there and do it.

No time like the present.

What inspires you?

Maybe I’m making excuses, maybe I just need to justify my actions, but honestly, sometimes I feel like someone is out to get me.

• A few months back I was gifted a bootcamp experience.  The day before I was going to do it, I got food poisining. I will take advantage of the next session…but have yet to go.

• I started doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. My XBox (aka my DVD player) broke. I have recently been informed that its on demand too, so Ill do that while waiting for a new DVD player.

• This weekend I am flying down to SD to participate in the Shamrock Run 5K with my sorority sisters (one of whom I’ve mentioned is Biggest Loser 9′s Stephanie Anderson). I have since come down with a chest cold, am out sick today, and will likely just be walking the 5K while hacking along the way.

My immediate goal…after I beat this chest issue, is to actually run a 5K…even if its just on a treadmill or if I successfully run around Lake Merritt. I think the distance is about 3.5 miles. I owe that to myself after not being able to run this weekend. My preparation for this will be continuing the Couch to 5K program that I have downloaded from iTunes. Its actually really great and I highly recommend it..I just hope I feel better, and start motivating myself to go. I did head to the gym during lunch the other day, which is a start in the right direction, but I had to get off the treadmill due to the cold getting the best of me.

I really just need to stop whining and blaming others. “I’d work out if I had a treadmill. I’d workout if I wasn’t sick. I’d work out for longer if I had the time”….I need to STOP making excuses, and just be my own motivator. You would think that watching and knowing someone on The Biggest Loser would be enough, but I think that my problem is that the 10 lbs I could lose is pocket change, and my real motivator needs to be my level of fitness…thats the part that takes work. Thats what I need to do. Stop talking about it. Just do it. (haha)